Analysis of Groupware paper
From VMT
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[edit] Instructions
- What kind of social networking procedures, group practices, technology would be helpful to attain the goals of the BSCW project? Did the paper describe features that would support social networking? Did it describe features that would be useful in this course or in the VMT project?
[edit] Comments on Group Statements
Gerry 10:14, 26 April 2007 (EDT)
A little known feature of the VMT whiteboard is the concept map tool. While rather awkward to use, this could be used as a way of collaboratively outlining your weekly group postings. This would address the problems of collaborative writing that were raised in this week's group project postings. This would make good use of the shared whiteboard as a place to brainstorm central ideas and their connections. Once a concept map of your presentation was developed and agreed upon, then people could write up the textual posting -- possibly in the wiki, simultaneously editing different sections of the group's statement. Designing how this should work and perhaps how the concept map tool could be improved might make an interesting design project for this quarter.
Group D wrote below, "Whether or not progressive inquiry, for example, is happening is then on an individual level rather than through revisiting a topic in our disussion. If there is progression in our individual knowledge of a topic, it is not shared. This does not imply that VMT does not have tools for sharing this knowledge, but we do not have the time to use these tools." I wonder if this is true and, if so, how it could be changed. I have tried to make the topic of social networking a topic that we come back to every week in our groups and as a whole class. The design of knowledge building support is clearly not a matter of just building software tools. One must also structure the social practices, including the distribution of task assignments and time commitments. How could things be modified so that progressive inquiry is made more central to the activities of the class as a whole and to its group work, with shared knowledge increasing from week to week?
Please comment below:
responses by groups: Bertha 19:50, 8 May 2007 (EDT): In my group, I think all our members work full-time jobs, have families, and are studying all at the same time. After a non-stop of 9 hour work day + 2 hour commute + 30 minute dinner, there's little energy left by the time I sit down for class. So there's a tendency for me to work systematically to efficiently collect information into my head, digest it to produce the necesary results, but spend much time beyond that to contemplate the content and how it works in practice. What's awkward about it is that the content of this course describes the dynamics and situation of our groups. It's like photocopying a textbook on plagarism; even though the content of the course is pointedly discussing how to create a most beneficial knowledge-building community, achieving it is a whole different thing.
[edit] Team A Statement
- Members: Brian, Olivia, Seth
- Date and Time of posting: Olivia 21:59, 19 April 2007 (EDT)
[edit] What kind of social networking procedures, group practices, technology would be helpful to attain the goals of the BSCW project?
The primary goals of BSCW are to adapt CSCW and work-focused groupware into a CSCL learning environment (i.e. virtual classroom). The possible folder structure of that type of system would be a 'virtual learning places' of active knowledge building, rather than the traditional passive learning.
[edit] There are several ways to attain the goals of the BSCW project via certain social networking procedures.
These include the following:
- allowing students to set up new virtual learning places
- allowing students to invite friends to these rooms
- enabling students to start new knowledge building areas upon which other students can contribute their own knowledge
- initiating MapTool sessions where groups of scholars can collaborate with others on specific topics.
[edit] Several group practices consistent to the goals of BSCW can be used in group settings:
- All users will connect to save materials to archive in the system
- Participants should contribute valuable, well-thought out information to the appropriate folder; They should take heed not to "junk up" folders with useless documents and links
- Students posting responses and students participating in knowledge-bulding should title their threads with detailed explanations so it is easy to search and so users know what the folder contains without actually entering the folder
[edit] Technology helpful in attaining goals of basic support for cooperative work (BSCW):
- A functional document management system that has capabilities for uploading, downloading, versioning, and archiving documents. (page 172)
- version control is very important for tracking modifications to documents and ensuring that the most recent version is edited as to prevent the loss of changes.
- Support of web searches, annotations, and rankings of shared documents.
- Whiteboard capability (such as MapTool) should allow students in a group/course to work syncronously in real-time, as well as asyncronously at their convenience.
- Voting capability to enforce that decisions are made as a group, instead of individually; each student must approve submitted work so no one student's voice is greater than another's. Teachers can override the voting process if desired.
- Ability to assign access rights to different folders
[edit] Did the paper describe features that would support social networking? Did it describe features that would be useful in this course or in the VMT project?
Yes, the paper did describe features that would support social networking; the features seem to be more effective than what we have for this classes. For instance, the voting system implemented in the BSCW project would enforce true group collaboration amonst a team of students. A Document management system (that has capabilities for uploading, downloading, versioning, and archiving documents) and the extended chat functionality are two other prime examples that would be useful in the VMT project. All of these features would fit well into the multipurpose VMT suite that Info 608 currently uses, whose purpose is to provide a intuitive collaborative learning environment.
[edit] Team B Statement
[edit] Analysis of Groupware Paper
1. What kind of social networking procedures, group practices, technology would be helpful to attain the goals of the BSCW project? Did the paper describe features that would support social networking? Did it describe features that would be useful in this course or in the VMT project?
The BSCW project was more of a basic way for groups to share documents in an organized manner. It could use a way of socially networking with other groups in an interactive manner such as chats, whiteboards, and forums. The paper described these features as part of the additional capabilities built on BSCW by the ITCOLE Project. This new groupware known as Synergeia supports the collaborative knowledge building that was lacking in BSCW. One of the features in Synergeia that would be useful in this course was the group knowledge building area. This asynchronous tool allows for offline thought and cognitive individual thinking prior to submission to the group. A great tool to help with the offline content would be someting similar to Blackboard's Backpack (http://backpack.blackboard.com/). This tool allows users to use Blackboard offline. Once the user has internet access, information can be synchronized between the local computer and the online content. Another capability that can be used for this course and specifically for the VMT project is the MapTool which is Synergeia’s whiteboard function. It allows users to start with a blank session and save previous sessions. We found this would work well in the VMT environment.
The combination of both papers gives a historical overview on how groupware has been adapted to fit educational needs. One such platform is the VMT Project which is using groupware to create a collaborative, knowledge building community in the field of mathematics. VMT is is paving the way for future collaborative learning sites on the Internet.
[edit] Team C Statement
- Members Ben, Kevin, LisaG
- Date and Time of posting User:LisaG 23:23, 23 April 2007 (EDT)
Group statement on reading.
This paper makes the point that groupware should aim more for creating a learning environment more than a work environment. Two propositions support this: work environments are becoming more similar to learning environments, as workers often have to learn and adapt to constantly changing situations, and students will need skills which can only be developed through collaborative learning for they type of careers which will be available in the future (163). Some of the differences between work and learning groupware are highlighted through a learning system developed by the authors called Synergeia. The goal of this project is to provide a platform for collaborative knowledge building, which is thought to provide a deeper understanding of the topic (166). This involves not just sharing and archiving knowledge, as work oriented groupware is structured to do, but creating new knowledge through the sharing and interaction of a group. Group interaction is structured and focused through the use of a number of virtual tools, including the requirement of classifying entries as "thinking types" (a category in which the note will be placed), a variety of learning spaces, classified by type (which streamlines the experience and prevents unregistered user access). The flexibility of Synergeia allows for 'role based' usage and personal customization. Based on their role as student, teacher, guest, mentor....access various menu functions is defined. Users can personalize their interface based on their own preferences. Synergeia also allows for user contributions globally and provides teachers the ability to adjust their curriculum's 'collaborative knowledge building' approach.
Synergeia does support social networking simply by tying together the individual learning spaces where users contribute based on their roles and access rights. The 'concept map' was a method described that supports this aspect of social networking. This allows for a group to discuss and construct a map which diagrams the relationships among the group concepts.
Synergeia utilizes a whiteboard with a chat window, similar to our whiteboard, called MapTool. This tool provides an area to sketch the concept map described above.
[edit] Team D Statement
- Members Bertha, Jeeves, Eric
- Date and Time of posting Eric 21:34, 18 April 2007 (EDT)
Group statement on reading.
Team D - Week 3 - Group Reading Part 2- Promoting BSCW at school
In theory, any kind of technology that allow persons to communicate at a distance would be helpful to attain the goals of the BSCW project. "Email, videoconferencing, video phones, computer conferencing, chatrooms, and instant messaging are well-known examples of some of the collaborative technologies that have been developed to support people communicating at a distance." (textbook pg 143) Technologies that allow students to communicate using a variety of means (e.g., text, drawings, video, voice, etc) offer more possiblities, but which specific technologies work for a particular population will depend on how they will use the tools.
The paper delved into the mechanics of group learning, and course ware collaboration. The major mechanics of groupware are described under the running thought process model “Synergeia” , and describes a typical group stimulus model. The cause and effect of individual actions driving the feature of the proposed groupware tool, can be used to describe the tools of any other groupware interfaces and software. Finally the paper excels at detailing the types of situations that should be covered under the groupware interfaces and the pedagogical requirements to reach a state of Synergeia. (BSCW , Pg 5-6 )
The approach the paper examines is building knowledge based on both personal and group perspectives (BSCW, Pg 168). The structure of Synergeia is group discourse to form a shared knowledge. This approach is central to the VMT structure. That the process of collaboration itself generates and creates this shared knowledge space. The social networking allows the creation of smaller work groups as we see in VMT, which is condusive to enhancing and expanding the greater knowledge space. Social networking is supported and encouraged in the framework of Synerfeia as seen in the creation of a more acceptable space to enhance small group interaction. ( BSCW, Pg 169)
The features described in the paper would not be very useful in this course for a number of reasons. Most of the tools described that do not have an equivalent in VMT require that users spend more time in the environment than we can currently afford. Although our discussions in the course revolve around the idea of knowledge-building and interaction through and with computers, we move to different topics of the discussion each week, and rarely move back to a previously discussed topic. Whether or not progressive inquiry, for example, is happening is then on an individual level rather than through revisiting a topic in our disussion. If there is progression in our individual knowledge of a topic, it is not shared. This does not imply that VMT does not have tools for sharing this knowledge, but we do not have the time to use these tools.
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